The Day My Life Changed

I remember after miserably failing my first college test, in my favorite subject of math of all possible subjects. I tried to weasel my way out of it like how it worked for me countless times before in high school. By this stage of my life, I was a master at creating excuses; on cue too. I knew that the “perfect” excuse was something that was completely relatable, something that tugged at the heart strings of the teachers, tug at the heart strings, but my plan backfired. This teacher was having NONE of it when she told me that my grade was a reflection of my effort, then procceeded to cite the numerous times I came in late, wasn't paying attention while I spoke to a lady friend, or I flat out fell asleep. Then, in the same way baseball feels when it hits you upside your head, she proceeded to tell me that “Maybe, I wasn’t fit for college,” in that condescending tone of hers that I so desperately deserved. 

I'm not ashamed to say that I went back to my dorm that day and cried in disappointment, correction, BALLED in disappointed. All I can think about was how heartbroken my mom was going to be when she learned that her son just (MISERABLY) failed a test after how proud she was telling her friends that I decided to “ponerme las pilas” (get on the ball) and go to college, nor can I deal with the image of her ear-to-ear smile when she accompanied me to my freshman orientation.

However, something about those tears created a spark in me. My disappointment with my grade slowly turned into anger towards the effort I gave. How did I become "THAT" guy? The guy who didn't care, the guy who only cared about being cool? Right then and there, in my tiny little dorm, I made a promise to myself: I was going to not only get straight A’s in that class, but in all of my classes…..for the rest of my college career. If I didn’t earn an A, it wouldn’t be because I didn’t try.


That lady, whatever her name was, changed my life forever. I controlled my ego, I ate a big ol’ pie of humility and began studying and going to tutoring, two things I previously GROSSLY detested.  By the end of the semester my professor felt differently as I completed the rest of the year without getting a single question wrong, and completed college by graduating with the highest GPA in the school of business.


 In this process, I realized that not only was I capable of doing more but I actually enjoyed it. In addition, my mentality of “do your best or don’t do it all” has trickled into other parts of my life.  You probably wonder why in the world did I just post this, why would I spend the time writting this story, but the answer is simple. I’m currently reading “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink and he’s instructed me to practice my storytelling.

Hope you enjoyed! Feel free to share similar events in your life that caused a paradigm shift in you attitude, perception and effort in the comments section below. J

Public Battle with My Quarter-Life Crisis

Today I woke up with the terrible realization that I haven't been giving this life everything I have. I've gotten lazy by resting on my past accomplishments. And yes, although it pains me to admit, my previous actions reflected self-entitlement, hollow ambitions, and that is definitely NOT who I want to be so it's time for a change. This is the primary reason why I'm posting this on my blog; here, I will be publicly accountable for my promises regardless if anyone reads this or not.  (What can I say, I don't have the greatest following.)

Most of us young professionals have enormous ambitions to 1) make an impact in the world and 2) maybe make some money along the way while pursing #1. However, how many of us actually act upon those? Exactly, not many. We read stories about Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Walt Disney, or Henry Ford and in our young-ambitious-idealistic minds we find a way to consider them our equals. We come to the conclusion that "If they can do it, why can't we?" But we never consider HOW exactly we are going to accomplish this macro-scale impact we desire. Instead, we become consumed with our daily routines and the next thing you know, one day becomes a week, then a month, then a couple years. All while personal responsibilities keep growing exponentially and we no longer have the flexibility to take risk we can TODAY.

If we never take time to self-reflect and calculate a plan, then all we have is a hollow ambition that creates frustration, and in some cases depression, when we compare those ambitions to reality. This my dear friends is the quarter-life crisis, and I'm experiencing one.

To find a way out of this hole, I recently asked an extremely successful entrepreneur who never went to college for some guidance/advice. I wanted to know how he was able to get to where he was and his response was as insightful as it was simple. He looked me right into my eyes and said "All you have to do is hustle." I was shocked. So shocked in fact, I didn't know how to respond. I was certain there was more to it. There had to be some big secret successful people knew that I didn't, but apparently there isn't. We all know we need to hustle, it's the actually doing it part that we struggle with. We have to remind ourselves that the difference between success and mediocrity is action. Just like Sir Issac Newton said in his laws of Thermodynamics "For every action there's an equal or greater reaction" (Obviously, I'm improvising his words). So guess what happens when we take no action? NOTHING. 

Today, I will make my plan of attack. I will begin taking actions to take me where I want to be and I will live with the consequences if I never get there. However, I won't be able to live with never trying. Today marks the first day of the rest of our lives and it's time take control of that.

To conclude, I'm going to leave you all with a video I wish could wake me up everyday. I hope it makes the same impact on you that it does on me, and that is it makes me want to run through a wall........hypothetically, not physically of course..... Okay, you win. Maybe I'll run through drywall, but that's just for effects.

Now ask yourself, do you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe? Or do you just kinda-want-it?

What can Santa teach us about innovation?

I'm sure you remember the feeling. That unparalleled heart break. The disappointment. The force of reality's hand when it smacked you in the face and told you that Santa didn't exist. If you were like me, you probably cried until your eyes dried. You probably even had a tough time looking at your parents for at LEAST a couple of days.

Now rewind this moment to a year earlier.

If I walked up to you and told you that Santa Claus didn't exist would you believe me? Probably not. You would tell me something along the lines of "Nuh-uh my mom said he does. Plus, who do you think eats the cookies, stupid? My dad?!? No way he does!"

In this moment of our lives our parents build conventions that we guide our entire belief system on. To us, they are the equivalent of human Google's since they know everything. It isn't until later that we realize their faults.

What's the moral of the story?

What you think is true, probably isn't. What you think is right, is probably wrong. And what you think is for the best, is probably doing more damage than you can imagine. Thus if we want to be true innovators and create paradigm shifts against convention, we must be willing to accept that our life experiences may not provide us with a true representation of what is 'best.' Unfortunately this is easier said than done as embracing uncertainty is against our human nature. Similar to how you wouldn't have believed me when I told you Santa wasn't real.

Now, I write this without mentioning the 'professional' workplace as I've come to learn that it is not 'professionally' acceptable in most places to walk into your boss's office and prove him/her wrong. Plus, I don't want to have your firing on my conscience. So remember, this is just my unqualified opinion.....

My Problem with the NBA Lockout...

I have to admit, I’m a pretty cool guy. Soooooo cool that I’ll give you the privilege of buying me a house so I can throw my INSANE parties with all the top celebrities and because you bought me the house you’re now invited as well. But I there’s rules you have to play with. Once you buy me this house, I can do as I choose. I can throw parties, or not, and that’s completely up to me.

You in?

Probably not.

You see I’m a firm believer that business owners should have the right to do whatever they want to do with their business as long as they 1) obey laws and 2) pay taxes. But when they take a bite of the forbidden fruit and accept public funding those rules change. At that point they have an obligation greater than themselves. And this is where my problem with the NBA Lockout starts.

Owners (some not all) wanted tax payers to pay for new arenas, and they did. But now they are in the middle of a labor dispute and have chosen to completely disregard the hand that fed them.  In any other business context, I wouldn’t be at odds with decision. But the NBA isn’t any other business. Those owners that accepted public funding have to understand that they have a moral economic responsibility to the municipalities that help fund their place of business.

They made their bed and now is their time to sleep in it.

But this is just my unqualified opinion…..

How will Millenials Change the Way Companies are Managed?

The moment man created a vehicle called a business to increase his personal net worth, he understood that the Management of this vehicle's people/resources would is critical. Hundreds of years later, the manners in which companies are managed have changed but the interest in finding effective methods remains in high demand. This is why if you go to any bookstore and you will find entire sections dedicated to the topic of 'management,' as a matter of fact, management even has its own genre.

From Carnegie to Drucker and from Scott to Gladwell, the underlying message rarely differs. As a matter of fact, each author's respective messages are quite congruent to one another, and that is "to effectively manage people you have to understand how they function."  Thus as society's general mindset evolves as each generation passes, the methods of how to manage them will evolve as well. Which begs the question; "How will companies manage its employees' once Millenials like myself start to dominate the workforce?"

Photo was obtained from http://www.flowtown.com/blog/who-are-the-millennials

I predict that The Google approach to managing employees will be even more dominant in the market place then it is now.  That is ‘provide an employee with an environment that induces and rewards high performances, but also maintains accountability for production.’ In addition, although the prototypical corporate ladder will still exist, the interaction/compensation between the different layers will differ as drastically as we value work life balance just as much, if not more than our career advancement. This will lead to many superbly qualified employees choosing to stay in their job roles instead of advancing to the next level. However, as they are 'high performers' companies will find ways to still maximize their potential without requiring the prototypical promotion.

But this is just my unqualified opinion…..

My Promise to Myself.

Some say that people really learn to grow up during their college years. Personally, I think that’s a bunch crap. College is intended to be fun and class is what you do in your spare time.  Yeah, you have to deal with commitments, priorities, all your teachers intentionally scheduling all exams on the same week, and outside sources of stress (I.E. family issues, personal issues, having to find out where the best party is at, etc.). However during those years, the structure of the environment hinders your ability to be tested on a personal note as your exams ALWAYS have a right answer, and unfortunately most of the greatest issues we deal with in life have none..........I had to this the hard way.

 I would be lying if I told you my transition immediately following college was easy. I was forced to change the routine I had perfected and was forced to bid my farewell to the carefree, easy-going life I once had. No longer was I able to spend countless hours at the gym, or just hanging out with friends.

As the supply of my free time was now scarce, I had millions of reasons as to why it's okay for me to not spend time at the gym and work out. However, somewhere in between my 14 hour work days that consisted of me sitting at a desk, and the endless supply of brownies, M&M’s, Snickers, cupcakes, Skittles, Starburst and cookies that exist in audit rooms, I realized I had to change my ways. If not, the consequences could be damaging to my personal health. This is when I made the following promise to myself:

“I don’t care how many hours I work the day before, or how scarce time truly Is, nothing is going to stop me from waking up every day and going to the gym. I may not be able to spend multiple hours anymore, so that means I have to go as hard as possible for the 45 minutes to an hour I do have.”

Prior to making this promise to myself I was NEVER a morning person. However as I never knew what time I’m going to get home, but did know what time I was going to be waking up, morning workouts were the only option to build consistency.

The results of this promise have been great.  I feel better physically than I ever have before, although I still sit behind a desk up to 12-13 hours a day on many occasions.  And I encourage you to do the same. We all have priorities, we all have time constraints and we all can make a million excuses. However, the beautiful thing about personal fitness is that no one else can do it for you. You just have to get up and do it. And I promise you that with time the 'forced' feeling you get will diminish and your routine will become a habit.

Lastly, this is NOT a promise that I made to please other people and I hope it's the same for you. Instead this was just my reaction after I was confronted with a problem that had no ‘right’ answer and this is something I didn’t have to deal with in college.

But this is just my unqualified opinion….

My Ongoing Battle with Professionalism

I have to admit that I am having a tough time coming to grasp with the fact that the way I act at work has to differ from the way I act outside of it. Sure, I shouldn't talk to my clients/customers the same way I talk to my friends, but that's probably because they won't understand a single word I tell them.  But does this mean that I shouldn't talk to them as regular people, and should only address them as professionals? Or should I refrain from being my happy-go-lucky self as some people may think such a positive outlook is annoying?

My response?...... The hell with it.

So what if some people are annoyed by the fact that Wednesday's are my favorite day of the week and that I wake up every morning with the energy of a freaking rocket? That's who I am. It's in my DNA. Don't blame me. Blame genetics.

But it is this exact type of thinking that's caused me to feel like I'm the professional version

 of

Zack Morris from Bayside High. Which makes it only natural for the  Principal Belding's of the world to have a love/hate relationship with my way of being. They hate that I tend to be a little too eclectic for their liking, yet they love watching me build relationships with colleagues, clients, and yes even the cleaning people.

Yes, I'm that guy; the fun but productive type. The type who actually believes it is possible to do your job without having to be miserable and hating life. Quite frankly, I think the happier you are, the more productive you are. But for some odd reason the same world that applauds Steve Jobs' innovativeness and unconventional actions chooses to penalize those who don't follow ALL of the unwritten rules of business.

Please make sure that your fingers are crossed properly, that you have proper posture, that you use the right fork when you eat, and NEVER and I mean NEEVVEEERR put salt on your food before you taste it. Those things just wreak of unprofessionalism. 

 Personally, I think most people love the innovator........when they don't have to deal with them. However, when that person is active in their lives and is questioning the way things are being done, most of the time, they are penalized for it. Those in charge resort to the “how-can-you-question-my-methods-when-I've-been-doing-this-for-20-plus-years” argument.

Please note that although I look up to, and value, those who have credible experiences, I do believe that the moment someone reserves to a function of time (which also happens to be the ONE thing in this world we can't control) as their sole argument to demonstrate their superiority, they have failed. And this is where my battle with professionalism starts.

I'm expected to act a certain way, to talk a certain way, hell, even to think a certain way. To be professional, I must act in a way that is within the unwritten rules of business. However, fortunately, or unfortunately, I'm stubborn and think this is a bunch of horse shhhhhhhh...oes. Horse shoes, you dirty mind (I'm trying to stop cursing as it is not considered professional to do so).

You see I try to live by a certain model and that is that I rather be considered unprofessional and genuine, than be thought of as professional but full of shit.  Oopps. I cursed.... I told you I'm still a work in progress.  

But this is just my unqualified opinion.....